Ancrena
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Mining Bees (family Andrenidae) get their common name based on their practice of building ground nests.
While they are classified as solitary bees, often females build nests in proximity to each other, creating large mining bee colonies.
The picture shows a smaller bee in the Andrena genus. A couple hundred different North American species makes it difficult to identify any one specific species.
The top down view highlights the dark body and small amount of hair around the thorax.
© 2010 Patricia A. Michaels